estate lot 32 unsorted antique vintage player piano music rolls

Lot of about 32 player piano rolls, fresh out of a farm estate here in Wisconsin. We have hundreds of rolls from this lifetime collection, though sadly, no pianos!

These music rolls have been packed away in an old dairy barn haymow since the early 1950s, and are not in perfect condition, though we think we've managed to weed out incomplete or hopelessly damaged rolls. The boxes are worn, and in some cases the rolls show wear too. We've found a few dead bugs in the boxes, of the fairly innocent varieties found in Wisconsin barns and sheds - box elder bugs, ladybugs and the beetles that resemble them. We thought we'd mention it to warn the very squeamish, though it's all nice 'clean' outdoorsy bugs. These have very little in the way of mouse damage, but again, want to mention a warning, as very few barns are mouse free for 50+ years, and we'd expect to see signs of mice as well.

We know very little about player pianos, or music from this period. Some of these we noticed are marked word rolls, and it looks like those have the words to sing along printed around with the holes for the music.

We'd be happy to help with any information we might be able to provide, if you need specific measurements, or label info not visible in the photos. We've tried to show all the labels to show brands, types, and song titles, but please let us know if we've missed anything!